North Texas Tennis Classic Begins On Friday
11/4/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
DENTON, Texas (11/5/08) - The North Texas tennis team wraps up its fall campaign as the host of the North Texas Classic at the Waranch Tennis Complex on Friday, November 7 and Saturday, November 8. The schools participating are Ohio State, Texas A&M, UTEP, Tulsa, South Alabama, and North Texas. The action starts up at 10 a.m. both Friday and Saturday.
"We are proud to be hosting this tournament here at North Texas," said North Texas head coach Sujay Lama. "This is another great opportunity to measure our program. We've had success during the fall against talented teams in our region and across the country. I have confidence that the team can do the same this weekend and finish the fall with a bang."
At the evening session on Friday, there will be a FREE clinic for kids under 15 from 4:30 to 5:15 p.m and FREE pizza and lemonade served at 5:30 p.m. (Click on link above article for rest of schedule)
The North Texas Classic includes teams from four different conferences: The Big 10 (Ohio State), Big 12 (Texas A&M), Conference USA (Tulsa and UTEP), and the Sun Belt (North Texas, South Alabama). Ohio State, Texas A&M, Tulsa, and South Alabama all finished in the Top 50 of ITA's rankings this past spring.
UNT's last tournament, the ITA Southwest Regionals on Oct.23-27, provided several highlights for the Mean Green.
On day one, Narine Kazarova had two impressive straight set victories in her qualifier's draw. She defeated Itzel Manzanera of UT-Arlington (6-1, 6-2) and Emily Braid of Rice (6-1, 6-1). Amy Joubert and Rachel Wilhelm beat Texas State's Lainy Chafitz and Nyssa Peele in dominant fashion (8-1).
Day two saw Madura Ranganathan defeat Texas A&M's Stephanie Davidson in a three set match (2-6, 7-5, 6-2). The doubles team of Ranganathan and Irina Paraschiv advanced to the third round after upseting the No.10 seeded Baylor team of Chmelarova/Filipiak (8-2).
One of the most impressive matches of the Regionals ended in a loss for North Texas' Irina Paraschiv. Paraschiv gave No. 2 seeded Megan Falcon of LSU all she could handle in a three set match. After dropping the first set, Falcon responded by taking the next two sets for the win. But looking back, it was a great match for Paraschiv who showed a lot of potential in hanging with one of the nation's best players.
On day three, The doubles team of Irina Paraschiv and Madura Ranganathan advanced to the quarterfinals of the main draw after defeating Texas A&M. It was a battle against the No.8 seeded team of Davidson/Frank, but North Texas' Paraschiv and Ranganathan came back to win 9-7. The Mean Green duo then fell short to a determined Texas team. Vanja Corovic and Marija Milic of Texas were too much, battling back to win an emotional match 9-8 including a back and forth tiebreak (7-5). Corovic and Milic were nationally ranked as the No. 12 team in doubles.
Looking back, the weekend proved to be a strong step forward for North Texas tennis as the squad competed with some of the best schools in the country.
Players Mentioned
